With over a quarter of the lines from the Folio text cut, this production had more material omitted than any other in the entire series.
This episode begins with the death of Richard, followed by a brief excerpt from the abdication scene, both from Richard II (1978). Rumour's opening soliloquy is then heard in voice-over, played over scenes from the previous week's Henry IV Part I (1979); Henry's lamentation that he has not been able to visit the Holy Land, and the death of Hotspur at the hands of Prince Hal.
Part of the long running BBC Television Shakespeare project which ran between 1978 and 1985.